What are you looking for when you pick a piece of writing? The six illustrations that were chosen to become Popshot prints are some of my favourites from the first five or six issues. Naturally some stand out more than others but you spend so much time looking at the illustrations each issue that most of them stay with you. When you get to work with illustrators as mind-blowingly talented as the ones that feature in Popshot, it suddenly raises the standard to levels that I cannot achieve! Now my doodles are mainly reserved for birthday cards.Īre there any illustrations that have been in the mag which have really stuck with you? I still have them somewhere but I don’t do it anymore. I had a few illustrator friends who made a big impression on me when I was about 18, and I used to stay up until the wee hours doodling these little zines. There’s a possible collaboration in the pipeline that I would be very excited about if it came off but I have to keep quiet about it for now… I just want to keep making every issue better than the last, keep seeking out talented new writers and illustrators, and make sure that the magazine is well positioned for the future. What’s in store for the mag in the next year? There’s also a digital version as well, and a hoard of subscribers who we love to pieces. Since then, the pages have turned white, the text has turned black (white on black is pretty hard to read), the format has become bigger, interviews with poets and illustrators have come and gone, short fiction has been added, the angst against the poetry establishment has disappeared, it’s been rebranded, relaunched, and is now sold in 20 more countries than when we started. It started as an A5 poetry and illustration magazine, white text on black pages, with a pretty strong mission statement to tear poetry away from the grip of the fusty poetry establishment. The mag was begotten in 2008, how do you think it has changed since you first had the idea? I naively felt that I could create a magazine that would engage with younger readers and dispel the myth that poetry was a bunch of outdated bollocks that had no footing in the modern day. Most of them made poetry seem really difficult to engage with. I loved reading poetry but couldn’t find a single magazine on the shelves of Borders that was stimulating that passion. The magazine was born out of a slight frustration at the way in which poetry magazines were presenting themselves and ultimately, presenting poetry. How did you get the idea to start up Popshot? My name is Jacob Denno, 26, Editor of Popshot Magazine since the tender age of 21, with a background as a meandering bum before that. Can you tell me a little about yourself and your background?

Popshot magazinr